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David Arthur Skeel

S. Samuel Arsht Professor of Corporate Law

David Skeel

David Skeel is the author of The New Financial Deal: Understanding the Dodd-Frank Act and Its (Unintended) Consequences (Wiley, 2011), Icarus in the Boardroom (Oxford, 2005) and Debt’s Dominion: A History of Bankruptcy Law in America (Princeton, 2001), as well as numerous articles and other publications. He has been interviewed on The News Hour, Nightline, Chris Matthews’ Hardball (MSNBC), National Public Radio, and Marketplace, among others, and has been quoted in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post and other newspapers and magazines. Continue reading… David Skeel is the author of The New Financial Deal: Understanding the Dodd-Frank Act and Its (Unintended) Consequences (Wiley, 2011), Icarus in the Boardroom (Oxford, 2005) and Debt’s Dominion: A History of Bankruptcy Law in America (Princeton, 2001), as well as numerous articles and other publications. He has been interviewed on The News Hour, Nightline, Chris Matthews’ Hardball (MSNBC), National Public Radio, and Marketplace, among others, and has been quoted in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post and other newspapers and magazines. Skeel has received the Harvey Levin award three times for outstanding teaching, as selected by a vote of the graduating class, the Robert A. Gorman award for excellence in upper level course teaching, and the University’s Lindback Award for distinguished teaching. In addition to bankruptcy and corporate law, Skeel also writes on sovereign debt, Christianity and law, and poetry and the law, and is an elder at Tenth Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia.

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Expertise

  • Corporations
  • Bankruptcy
  • Religion and the Law

Books

BANKRUPTCY (Foundation Press 9th ed., 2012) (with William Warren and Daniel J. Bussel).

IS U.S. GOVERNMENT DEBT DIFFERENT? (FIC Press, 2012) (with Franklin Allen, Anna Gelpern and Charles Mooney).

THE NEW FINANCIAL DEAL: UNDERSTANDING THE DODD-FRANK ACT AND ITS (UNINTENDED) CONSEQUENCES (Wiley, 2011).
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Articles and Book Chapters

Can Pensions Be Restructured in (Detroit’s) Municipal Bankruptcy? (The Federalist Society, White Paper Series, October 2013).

The Mosaic Law in Christian Perspective, LAW AND THE BIBLE: JUSTICE, MERCY AND LEGAL INSTITUTIONS (Robert F. Cochran Jr. & David VanDrunen eds., 2013) (with Tremper Longman).

Institutional Choice in an Economic Crisis, 2013 WIS. L. REV. 629

Is Bankruptcy the Answer for Troubled Cities and States?, 50 HOUS. L. REV. 1063 (2013).

Dynamic Resolution of Large Financial Institutions, 2 HARV. BUS. L. REV. 435 (2012) (with Thomas H. Jackson).

A Dialogue on the Costs and Benefits of Automatic Stays for Derivatives and Repurchase Agreements, in BANKRUPTCY NOT BAILOUT: A SPECIAL CHAPTER 14 (Hoover Institution Press, 2012) (with Darrell Duffie).

Hauerwasian Christian Legal Theory, 75 LAW & CONTEMP. PROBS. 115 (2012).

Transaction Consistency and the New Finance in Bankruptcy, 112 COLUM. L. REV. 152 (2012) (with Thomas Jackson).

States of Bankruptcy, 79 U. CHI. L. REV. 677 (2012).

Inside-Out Corporate Governance, 32 J. CORP. L. 147 (2012).

Introduction: Appreciating Bill Stuntz (with Michael J. Klarman & Carol S. Steiker), in THE POLITICAL HEART OF CRIMINAL PROCEDURE: ESSAYS ON THEMES OF WILLIAM J. STUNTZ, Cambridge University Press, 2012 (co-editor with Michael J. Klarman & Carol S. Steiker).

Making Sense of the New Financial Deal, 5 LIBERTY U. L. REV. 181 (2011).

Welcome Back, SEC?, 18 AM. BANKR. INST. L. REV. 573 (2010).

Assessing the Chrysler Bankruptcy, 108 MICH. L. REV. 727 (2010), reprinted in 52 CORP. PRAC. COMMENTATOR 1 (2010) (with Mark Roe).

Bankruptcy or Bailouts?, 35 J. CORP. L. 469 (2010) (with Kenneth Ayotte).

Bankruptcy Phobia, 82 TEMP. L. REV. 333 (2009).

The Criminal Law of Gambling: A Puzzling History, in GAMBLING: MAPPING THE AMERICAN MORAL LANDSCAPE (Alan Wolfe & Erik C. Owens, eds., 2009) (with William J. Stuntz).

Competing Narratives in Corporate Bankruptcy: Debtor in Control vs. No Time to Spare, 2009 MICH. ST. L. REV. 1187.

Bankruptcy Boundary Games, 4 BROOK. J. CORP. FIN. & COM. L. 1 (2009).

The Unbearable Lightness of Christian Scholarship, 57 EMORY L.J. 1471 (2008).

The Promise and Perils of Credit Derivatives, 75 U. CIN. L. REV. 1019 (2007) (with Frank Partnoy).

Christianity of the (Modest) Rule of Law, 8 U. PA. J. CONST. L. 809 (2006) (with William Stuntz).

More publications can be found here.

Working Papers

When Should Bankruptcy Be an Option (for People, Places or Things)?, U of Penn, Inst for Law & Econ Research Paper No. 14-8 (forthcoming 2014)
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Behavioralism in Finance and Securities Law, U of Penn, Inst for Law & Econ Research Paper No. 13-25 (forthcoming 2014)
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Bankruptcy and Economic Recovery, in RESTRUCTURING FINANCIAL INFRASTRUCTURE TO SPEED RECOVERY (Brookings Institution, forthcoming) (forthcoming October 2013)
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Bankruptcy Law as a Liquidity Provider, U. CHI. L. REV., Forthcoming, U of Penn, Inst for Law & Econ Research Paper No. 13-8 (with Kenneth Ayotte). (forthcoming 2013)
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A Theory of Law Firm Globalization (unpublished manuscript, 2008) (with John Armour)

Why Do Distressed Companies Choose Delaware? An Empirical Analysis of Venue Choice in Bankruptcy, (U of Penn, Inst for Law & Econ Research Paper No. 03-29, October 2004) (with Kenneth Ayotte).
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Research Areas

  • Christianity and the Law
  • Corporate Law
  • Bankruptcy
  • Debt Relief and Sovereign Bankruptcy
  • Law and Religion
  • Law and Poetry

Positions

Penn Law - S. Samuel Arsht Professor of Corporate Law (2004- ); Professor of Law (1999-2003)

Member, European Corporate Governance Institute (2007- ); American College of Bankruptcy (2009- )

Visiting Professor - Georgetown, University of Virginia, University of Wisconsin

Temple - Associate Professor of Law (1993-98); Assistant Professor (1990-93)

Professional Activities

Executive Board of American Association of Law Schools Committee on Business Associations (2007-2010)

Research Associate, European Corporate Governance Institute (since 2006)

Member, American College of Bankruptcy (since 2009)

Board of Trustees, Consumer Bankruptcy Assistance Project, Philadelphia, PA (2000-2006)

Courses

  • Corporations
  • Bankruptcy
  • Debt Relief and Sovereign Debt Restructuring
  • Law, Literature, and Interpretation
  • Christian Perspectives on Law

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